


make it rain (ain't a thang)

by highrise



Category: Metropolis Suites - Janelle Monáe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 10:51:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1742063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highrise/pseuds/highrise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cindi is started.</p>
            </blockquote>





	make it rain (ain't a thang)

The first time Cindi is switched on, it takes an hour for the settings to load.There’s too much information loaded too quickly and it takes a while to sift through each section and organise it carefully. Lady Maestra sits across the room from where Cindi stands, sorting. Her legs are crossed and her nails are painted scarlet as she flicks through her magazine. On the small coffee table beside her rests a smooth, silver remote. One press would bring 6ix Savage in.

It’s barely used.

Cindi knows that she could - would - should cause it’s usage. Ming’s prototype had wrong wiring and she had leapt at Lady Maestra before an auction. The engineer who had designed her had been a deviant and, instead of death, there was only the Palace of the Dogs for him. He was too important to lose.

He is important to Cindi. She doesn’t know why yet.

Lady Maestra lowers her magazine and looks at Cindi with a cool, piercing gaze. Cindi has another five minutes of information to catalogue, but Lady Maestra stands up. She is always graceful, always perfect, always always always.

Her heels click loudly as she leaves the room. She’s slow and confident, and Cindi has four minutes of information left to catalogue.

-

There are no other androids like her. When resting, they are arranged by model. Cindi stands at the end of the line, first row. On her own. To her left are the Jane Lee models. Alpha Platinum 8000. Cindi is new and Cindi is fresh and Cindi is alone and Cindi can’t - won’t - shan’t rest. She spends the nights running through her processors, fixing each misalignment that happens through the day herself. The other androids are stiff and still and she is alone.

Sometimes she tells the other androids about the information that isn’t information. It’s vague and distorted, not stored properly and that hurts her pride more than she would admit to herself, but there is a man - a human - with soft hands and a too wide smile, and she is soaring and she is happy beyond the feelings expected of her.

And there is the Palace of the Dogs.

And sometimes, there is her walking, barefoot. Her feet hurt. Her feet shouldn’t hurt.

-

6ix Savage stares at her sometimes. Before head of security, he was an engineer too. He knows how the androids work and his fingers have the deftness of a skilled pianist. music, music, Cindi is good with music, and 6ix Savage could be good with music so Cindi smiles at him, always benignly. he never smiles back but sometimes, before she is sent out, he squeezes her shoulder.

It's comforting. She knows she won't be sold soon. Her marketing is not finished yet but, by the end of the year, she will be. She has to be.

-

One android dysfunctions. Cindi is singing but then the lights go out. She stops singing because the music isn’t playing. The lights flicker, before switching on and Lady Maxxa is on the floor. There are two of 6ix Savage’s police acting as a barrier between her and the Ming model that is tearing at her own hair. There is the faintest bit of lights around the nape of her neck, but another policeman has her arms behind her in a tight grip. They are efficient but they are not androids. (another Ming, the engineer had been clever to hide faulty wiring but he was in the Palace of the Dogs and Cindi would be in the Palace of the Dogs, after meeting a human and the Palace of the Dogs scares her but-)

Ming wrenches herself away from his grasp and flees down the catwalk. One policeman follows. 6ix Savage leaves the room. Sir Leftfoot fiddles with a device, staring at Lady Maxxa.

The remaining two policemen help Lady Maxxa up to her feet. She smooths down her dress and they both bow low to her. She waves them away with an imperious look and they leave.

Ming’s production is stopped. Mousey buys two models for an extortionate price.

-

There is always a deep cotton representative sitting in the corner backstage now. His hood is always up and he remains perfectly still, but he is there.

Cindi knows she will be taken soon. The Palace of the Dogs scares her.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this sometime after the archandroid came out. when electric lady came out, i dusted it up and gave up


End file.
